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About Us

Cricklewood Homeless Concern (CHC) is a confident and ambitious charity organisation that seeks to take what it has successfully developed on to a much larger stage.

Founded in 1983 to tackle the problem of local homelessness it has over the years broadened its services to become what it proudly proclaims as a true ‘community resource.’ Now its client group is expanded to cover not just the homeless population but also any other vulnerable or disadvantaged group across London as well as in its local community. In addition to housing advice and support, CHC has a community alcohol and drug services project, and it provides training, employment and enterprise services.

At the heart of all its work are certain principles. The people it deals with are encouraged at all times to take personal responsibility for their actions, and to engage actively with the local community, and CHC has trained its staff to facilitate, not to create a dependency.

Since 2008 CHC has been operating services from a purpose-built resource centre. It is designed to mirror the ‘journey of change’ it encourages its clients to follow, and it is key to CHC’s success. Such a journey often starts with meeting basic human needs for medical and social care, clean clothes or a hot meal, and ends with fulfilment in education and employment. Customers begin their journey at a level in the centre appropriate to their needs and then choose from a wide range of relevant support services delivered under one roof by CHC staff and partner agencies ranging from therapy to training. Around 600 people use its services, of which 200 are very active, their self-esteem rising like them from the lower levels of the building to its upper floors.

CHC is in the business of rebuilding lives and developing communities. Part of that development lies in local residents taking on board that vulnerability is the responsibility of the whole community. To help this process CHC arranges many social functions, such as concerts and fashion shows, in its centre.

Since its foundation CHC has achieved much of what it originally set out to achieve. The challenge now is to move the organisation to a new level. This could involve broadening its range of services, or offering them further afield. Most interestingly CHC feels the services it has developed could be packaged and offered to other charities, with CHC entering into revenue-producing support and training contracts.

The objectives of CHC, as explained by its Chief Executive, can be summarised as follows:

• to be the first choice for vulnerable people;
• to have the best people designing and delivering services;
• to be the gold standard in welfare provision for vulnerable people; and
• to be a community beacon and to be financially secure.

CHC is a 2010 Charity Awards Nominee, a success that reflects its intention to be the best in its field. To learn more about its work visit its website at www.chc.org.uk.